


A Sturdy Solitary Stone

by Agent66



Series: And Now We're Falling Apart [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Drama, Episode: s05e19 Now We're Only Falling Apart, Episode: s05e20 What's Your Problem?, Episode: s05e21 The Question, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Heart of the crystal gems, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 16:36:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15247416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agent66/pseuds/Agent66
Summary: Set duringWhat's Your Problemand ending at the beginning ofThe Question, Ruby finds herself wondering what will happen now.





	A Sturdy Solitary Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Wooo-weee! What a week, y'all! Amiright?? That was a fantastic set of episodes and try as I might, I could not ignore the Rupphire love that was given to us.
> 
> This is the first part of a two part fic, that now join Diffusion and Evaporation in this series. Here, I wanted to know what Greg and Ruby had discussed, especially with everything going on.
> 
> While you just have to be familiar with the promo for Heart of the Crystal Gems to read the first two stories, you will absolutely need to have seen the first three episodes ( _Now We're Only Falling Apart, What's Your Problem, The Question_ ) for these next two stories.
> 
> This story will focus on Ruby during What's Your Problem, while the second will focus on Sapphire during WYP and The Question. Thanks to everyone who read the previous stories and hopefully, you'll enjoy these new additions!

“Sapphire…”

“She lied to us! She lied about everything!”

Ruby had been well aware that Sapphire could hold an angry streak because, well, in many of those cases, that streak was aimed at her. But while the red gem knew her partner could get her pretty little petticoat in a bunch, she couldn’t ever remember the seer being _this_ upset about _anything_ before. Yes, learning that Rose Quartz had just been a figment of Pink Diamond’s imagination brought to real life was…disconcerting. It absolutely was, but they could get through this.

This could be overcomed.

“She held our hands, looked at us right in the eyes, and told us to never question who we are as Garnet. We never questioned ourselves or her!”

Okay, right. That was…absolutely right. It had never occurred to them, any of them, to question Rose’s motives on…anything, really. Oh, they would question her over a particular tactic…well, actually that was more them as Garnet and Pearl questioning a particular tactic or rather, discussing a tactic and what the best course of action was. As for Garnet…Rose told them to never question what they had done, who they had made because…because _they_ were the answer. Ruby had always thought the answer was love, _their love_ , which was why they could be Garnet for over 5,750 years.

They couldn’t have known.

“We couldn’t have known!” Ruby insisted. Sapphire was upset, obviously, this was a very upsetting revolution, but this…this could be fixed. Somehow. Rose wasn’t there to answer for what she did, but they didn’t need Rose.

“No,” Sapphire hissed. “ _You_ couldn’t have known. You _never_ know what’s going on. That’s what _I’m_ for!”

Well…that stung.

“Sapphire…” _She was just upset. She didn’t mean what she said, she probably didn’t even know what she was saying._

“But I never looked into her, I trusted her,” She turned and rushed to the warp pad. “And I let her make fools of us all!”

“Sapphire, wait!” _She’s upset, she’s upset, she’s upset, she doesn’t mean any of this._ “Please,” Ruby pleaded. “We can just stay calm and talk about this, right? Let’s just…talk.”

The chill in the room perfectly matched the seer’s tone and voice. “Talk about what?” she asked. “How our relationship is based on a _lie_? What else is there to say?”

That had been…well, Ruby wasn’t actually sure how long it had been. She hadn’t even realized she had fallen to her knees on the sleet of ice Sapphire had left in her wake. It had to have been some time later because her tears had managed to dry, though Ruby honestly wasn’t sure if it was because she had stopped crying or she had managed to steam them off her face. But did it really matter? Everything was…wrong.

Ruby could chalk up the outburst for learning what they had. Learning that their leader, their friend had been leading a double life this entire time was extremely upsetting, of course it was, especially when Rose hadn’t even trusted them enough to tell them about it. Or Pearl. Ruby didn’t understand the whole scope of it and right now, she just couldn’t be bothered, not when Sapphire was out there somewhere and…and…maybe that didn’t matter either.

Sapphire thought they were lie, that the time they had been together was another deceitful move by Rose and really, Ruby couldn’t exactly blame her. In the time she had watched Sapphire go, with Steven and Pearl hurrying after her, Ruby was suddenly presented with the real possibility that…that maybe they _hadn’t_ been meant to be together. It made sense, didn’t it? From the moment she had jumped up to push her out of the way, Ruby had been an ‘unforeseen variable’ as Sapphire called her once; Sapphire had seen a vision where Rose and Pearl were captured and everyone reformed back on Homeworld.

That’s what _should’ve_ happened.

Instead, Ruby had to go mess up the future timeline or whatever. She was, basically, an anomaly, something that shouldn’t have happened, but did. She couldn’t and wouldn’t regret saving Sapphire, never, but it did make things all that more…complicated. It seemed obvious Sapphire had made her decision, possibly, so that meant Ruby had a decision of her own to make.

Standing, the red gem surveyed the room. Thanks to her own swirling emotions, she had managed to melt Sapphire’s ice into puddles and Pearl would have their gems if she came back to a growing swamp in the middle of the living room. From the beeps and music coming from above, Amethyst was still around and had either just started or was in the middle of playing video games on Steven’s bed. Turning to her left and looking up, she was right on the money, as the purple gem was laying against a few pillows with a controller in her hand.

“Amethyst!”

“Sup?”

“Get down here,” Ruby continued. “We gotta clean this up before the others get back.”

Amethyst gave a long, annoyed groan. “Don’t you like, have heat powers to clean that up?” she huffed.

“Do you like, wanna continue playing video games in a burning house?” came her retort. She almost rethought the comment – _of course_ Amethyst would totally continue to play video games in a burning house; this _was_ Amethyst after all. Luckily, the purple gem must have come to reason because she sighed dramatically before placing the controller on the bed and jumping down from the loft to the couch, then to the coffee table and the floor.

“So, are you done moping or what?” she asked.

It was on the tip of Ruby’s tongue to say something smart, but she ended up letting it go. She loved Amethyst, she really did, but sometimes the younger gem had a clear disregard of tact; once she thought that, she took it back. She knew Amethyst was just as confused as they were and was just doing what she usually did when met with a situation she hated and couldn’t control.

Instead, Ruby replied with, “Help me clean this up and you won’t hear a peep outta me, okay?”

That was the encouragement the purple gem needed, grabbing a couple of paper towels and dropping them on the floor in order to soak up the leftover water. If not for the situation, Ruby could almost pretend they were cleaning up after a water balloon fight or something, only their cleanup was done in silence and Amethyst had gone to go check on the continuously depressed green gem that now resided within the bathroom.

And wasn’t that just ironic? Peridot was living in the bathroom thanks to another one of Blue Diamond’s gem taking off during an argument about something solely caused by Pink Diamond.

Ruby couldn’t have fallen in love with a Yellow Sapphire or a White Sapphire, no no, she had to bump into the one sapphire that predicted the fall of the Crystal Gems. And it certainly didn’t matter that Yellow Diamond actually didn’t have any sapphires in her court and the last thing anyone wanted was to meet up with any gem from White’s court, but the red gem would not be swayed.

She knew exactly what she needed to do.

It took less time to clean everything up, especially with two people and Ruby was true to her word and didn’t say another thing to Amethyst past her request for a pen and a piece of paper. The purple gem obliged by handing over something from Steven’s bedside table before proceeding to go back to whatever game she had cued up. And then Ruby began to write:

_Sapphire –_

_You were right…_

 

* * *

 

There were very few places a gem with a broken relationship built on a lie could go, but Ruby was determined to find that place. However Beach City was not that big of a town, which meant that the gem managed to get from one end of the beach to the other in only a few minutes time. It did help that she was concentrating on not burning the town down, as well as thinking over everything that made up her relationship.

She had thought they had been on the same page, once, but maybe they had been well, reading two different books. Or they were reading the same book and were now on different pages, she didn’t know. She just knew this was way more upsetting than Rose lying to them. How long had Sapphire felt this way? Had she ever wondered if they should even stay together?

Ruby grounded to an immediate halt. Was that what this was? Was this…was this it for them? It was one thing to not be Garnet, but even when they weren’t Garnet, they had always been ‘Ruby and Sapphire’. Closing her eyes tightly, the small gem managed to stave off another fresh round of tears, but she couldn’t stop them completely. Sniffing, she opened her eyes only to see a familiar van and its owner.

Right at the same time the owner saw her.

“Ruby?”

Greg Universe was used to strange occurrences. After all, his former girlfriend and mother of his child was an alien from another planet, as were her friends; he had gone through many an odd thing hanging around the Crystal Gems, including watching them battle water clones of themselves, watching his son and his best friend fuse, and getting kidnapped by one of their alien monarchs. But as weird as all that was, the former musician could easily say he was never so concerned than when Garnet was split up.

Even back to when he was still learning all about gems and their ways, Greg knew that Garnet did not split up just for the novelty of it and when she _did_ split, it meant something big was going on. A few times the human had come to understand was just the two of them going through normal and healthy couple issues – in fact, that was how he had met the two of them in the first place, by becoming an inadvertent relationship counselor. So, to see the more emotional of the two standing by his van and crying, Dr. Universe immediately closed his primary business.

Walking over to her, he couldn’t help but do a quick glance around for her partner in crime or any other gem that could be following. He also kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, like corrupted gems or Diamonds who just happen to visit Earth as mourning routines. “Hey, are you okay?”

As expected, the little gem shook her head in the negative.

“This isn’t about Steven, right?” he asked, just to be sure. “He’s not in any danger or anything?” Again, Ruby shook her head no. “And the others aren’t in danger?” Again, a no, but this was accompanied by a sniff.

Right. Sapphire, of course.

“You wanna go for a drive?” he asked, sympathetically.

And as he hoped, she nodded.

 

* * *

 

The drive to Brooding Hill always took a while, at least a fifteen, twenty-minute drive at most, and whenever Greg drove up there for some inspiration, he always popped in a few mellow tunes to help the drive along. He still wasn’t sure what was going on, seeing as Ruby had been tightlipped since getting into the car, which was absolutely _not_ like her, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that something big was going on and it totally had something to do with Sapphire.

This certainly wasn’t the first time Greg Universe had played strange gem relationship counselor to the beings that made up Garnet and he certainly didn’t mind returning the favor for all the times he had most likely pestered her with questions about gems and Rose and the gem culture Rose and the others came from. In fact, if he was honest with himself, Ruby and Sapphire were probably the most romantic couple he could associate with the word.

Oh, he knew happy couples of course - Vidalia and Yellowtail were one such couple – but before he struck it out on his own and even on the road, he was always privy to the aftermath of a relationship. He had his heart broken a few times and was actually a heartbreaker himself at one point, Marty of course had no idea of what a relationship was if it didn’t start or end in the back of the van (which Greg scrubbed down within an inch of its life. He had even considered torching the whole thing, at least until he realized _Steven_ had also been conceived back there).

Even when he was a kid, he could count on the number of happy couples he knew on one hand; most of his friends had divorced parents or parents who were about to be divorced. Even his own parents had considered separating at one point and he never discovered if they had or not (he’d have to ask Andy about that the next he saw him), so to not only know a couple that had lasted longer than _most humans lived_ was, well, unique and wonderful.

Which was why Greg had immediately dropped everything and started driving, with the little red gem gloomily sitting in the passenger seat.

Brooding Hill, as the name implied, was a large overhang of a cliff where most people came to get away from it all, in a literal sense. He remembered Steven telling him how Ronaldo Fryman called it as such, using it as a place to, well, brood and that Steven had once gone up after Peridot’s ship had crashed landed into the beach because he was trying to escape having to talk to Connie about the entire ordeal.

Greg actually came up here on occasion when he needed inspiration or, sometimes when things got a little stressful, to brood. He wasn’t a brooding man in any means, even when he was a teenager, but a lot of things had happened since he arrived in Beach City. He had met the love of his life, dropped his sleezy manager, and chose love over fame; with the first and the last, those things came with becoming the boyfriend of a rebel leader who just happened to have saved two of her closest friends before finding the other in what many described as The Badlands on the west coast.

Stopping the van a little ways from the edge, he parked and motioned for Ruby to get out while he grabbed his cell phone. “Hey,” he said, coming up behind her. “Hungry? I could order a pizza?”

“Yeah,” the little gem whispered. “That sounds good.”

“Still like pepperoni?”

“Sure.”

Greg nodded before putting in the call to Fish Stew. He knew they were well out of the delivery range, but he was hoping Jenny wouldn’t mind, especially not if he gave her a big enough tip. Besides, he was the manager of her band, she had to give him one little perk, right? Not that he would take advantage of the kids like that, not the way Marty had done to him, but this was a bit of an emergency.

Ruby had already sat down at the edge, her legs swinging slowly against the cliff face, when Greg joined her. As aptly named as the spot was, it also gave a great view of Beach City and the ocean shore, not to mention it was the perfect backdrop to watch a sunset or even a sunrise. The two watched the sun begin to lower in the sky, reflecting itself off the ocean’s surface, both silent in thought. The elder human finally turned to his left and asked, “Wanna talk about it?”

Greg was almost sure Ruby was about to go off on a tangent, ranting and raving about the perceived slight Sapphire had given her or something to that effect. He was not expecting the answer she gave.

“Rose was Pink Diamond!”

“Say what now!?”

Ruby sighed, guilt and shame written all over her face. They were still reeling from the revelation themselves and the implications it now represented, no one had really thought out what they would need to say to Greg or how he’d react. “I’m…I’m sorry, Greg,” she whispered. “Steven should be the one telling you this, but…well, yeah. That’s kinda how this whole thing started.”

Greg listened as Ruby told him…everything. How Garnet and Amethyst had gone out on a short mission and returned to see Steven coming out of Pearl’s pearl. How Steven’s next sentence, four short words, were all that were needed to completely disrupt what had been a great day. That’s as far as the gem got before Jenny showed up with their pizza and Greg had apologized for sending her all the way out there, handing over a very generous tip for her trouble.

Sitting the still warm box between them, Greg grabbed the first slice and took a bit, not because he was particularly hungry – he was, but he wasn’t starving – but because he needed help in making sure he didn’t blurt out his thoughts about this. Ruby copied him, grabbing a piece, taking a bite, and swallowing hard. Looking out at the water, she continued her tale – how Pearl and Steven explained everything, how Rose was actually Pink Diamond, how she faked her own shattering, how Sapphire’s anger over the duplicity caused Garnet to unfuse, and the words the seer used before she left.

Even Greg winced when Ruby repeated what was said, how Ruby had never seen anything and how…how Sapphire thought their relationship built on a lie. The former musician wished he could immediately tell the gem that her words weren’t true, but…it did bring up an interesting question, didn’t it? Greg knew Rose kept secrets, especially when it came to what happened during the war she ended up causing; like Sapphire, Greg had never thought to question her, why would he?

He trusted Rose and…somewhere, he hoped she trusted him, too.

Had they been a lie, too?

He knew Rose found humans confusing and fascinating at the same time. Certainly, their relationship could’ve been another fling for her if not for their talk that changed everything between them; Rose admitted that she hadn’t realized that Greg wanted more from her, that he wanted to make their relationship permanent. As a gem, Rose was experiencing life on a new planet, with strange people, so it was all new to her and new to him, too; he was younger back then, having just gotten in the middle of his career as a rock star.

They had pretty much grown up together, learned and talked about new experiences together; shared a life together. Rose was mysterious, all right, and kept some of the more painful aspects of her life from him and yeah, in hindsight, the way she handled the situation between him and Pearl wouldn’t have won her even the worst friend/girlfriend award, but…Rose had always tried to be a good person, had tried to do the right thing when she saw a wrong being done.

She wasn’t perfect by any means and honestly, that’s why he loved her.

No, what the two of them had wasn’t a lie at all. And what Ruby and Sapphire had could in no way be built on any lie told by _anyone_ , much less Rose.

“Maybe she’s right,” Ruby whispered, sighing deeply. “Sapphire, I mean. Maybe our relationship _is_ a lie…”

“Hold the phone,” Greg interrupted. He waited until Ruby looked over at him. “Now give the phone to me. I don’t know much about the Diamonds or what this kind of thing is doing to you guys, but I’ve known Garnet for a long time and I’ve known you and Sapphire for a long time. Heck, this is not the first time I’ve played relationship counselor for the two of you -” Ruby blushed, even as she chuckled at the very true inside joke.

“Regardless on how you ended up together,” he continued. “You both _stayed_ together because you love each other. Couples who get into the kind of arguments you do aren’t doing so because they don’t like each other, well…I guess there are exceptions, but believe me, I’ve heard worse words thrown between people and I’ve never heard the two of you ever get to that point.”

“But she said…”

“I know,” the former musician stressed. “And she was wrong for saying it, but even you admitted she took this whole thing pretty badly. For someone who’s so used to seeing the future, this actually managed to blindside her and sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment. Besides, don’t you think the reason she said what she did was because she’s just as upset about the thought that things could’ve been completely different?”

Ruby had to concede to that. Sapphire was too nice to say what she had just to be mean, she was upset about the situation. Greg was right – their meeting may have been because of Rose, but Rose hadn’t made the two of them fall in love and try as she might, Ruby did still love Sapphire.

“Maybe this is a good time to think things over.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well,” Greg shrugged. “Whenever you guys went on a mission and were gone for a while, I’d miss Rose like crazy, but it gave me the chance to really think about what I wanted in a relationship with her. Maybe this is what you need to remind you what you love about being with Sapphire and being Garnet.”

“Huh.”

It was certainly an interesting idea. From the moment she had emerged from her Kindergarten, Ruby had always been grouped with other gems – rubies, mostly, but then she had fused with Sapphire and as Garnet, they had joined the Crystal Gems. When was the last time, if ever, Ruby had just been…Ruby? That was the thought in her mind when she heard a familiar “Hey guys!” from behind her.

Turning she was surprised to see two gems she hadn’t seen since that morning.

“Steven?”


End file.
